Performance Unlimited Blog

If there’s one day out of the year, here in McHenry, when it’s okay to let your hair down and get a little wild, it’s New Year’s Eve. It’s almost mandatory. No one will blame you if you drink a little too much, or a lot. They won’t care if you whoop and holler at Midnight. The crazy paper hat on your head will appear as appropriate as the big smile on your face. If you drive, however, while imbibing a bit too much, there is one group that will not be understanding. They won’t say, “Well, it’s New Year’s Eve. You’re just having fun.” To make matters worse, this group will spend the night of festivities prowling the roads of McHenry looking for revelers who have carried their celebrating to a seat behind the steering wheel of the car, truck or SUV. They are so unforgiving that they’ll go out of their way to ruin your fun while giving you a great-big headache for the year ahead. McHenry has holiday spoilsports with badges and unforgiving attitudes This group of spoil-sports has ...

At this point, if you haven’t winterized your car, time is definitely running short. In fact, McHenry area weather has already thrown some serious tests you and your car’s way. Where we usually don’t see more than a few flakes of snow through mid-November, this year we had children Trick-or-Treating in a snowstorm. Equally unusual, where we only dip slightly below the freezing mark in the same period, we saw temperatures that were far colder than we’re used to here in the McHenry area. Not only did we see days in the teens, on a couple occasions, the temperature dipped into the single digits. One of the worst of these days was Nov. 12 when the high only reached 16 degrees and the mercury fell to a low of 6 degrees. The weather warmed up a little after that but there’s a lot of winter left to go. If your car surpassed that early test, there are other tests yet to come. In January and February, temperatures in the single digits could refer to highs as sub-zero temperatures are ...

Imagine if the Big Guy came in for a landing and a strut for one of the sleigh blades broke. Or, think about Nick going off-course because the in-dash navigation system was on the fritz. Even if the seat warmers stopped warming it could spell disaster for good girls and boys, as well as bad; keep in mind the temperatures are dangerously low when soaring at 10,000 feet. Maintenance is part of the trip that the Jolly Old Fellow can’t overlook. Of course, in the case of this extensive route, maintenance includes the care and feeding of aged reindeer. The average life span for an ordinary reindeer is 12 years. But these reindeer are known to have pulled the boss’s sleigh since 1823 and longer. That was when Clement Clarke Moore is said to have published the first account of their miraculous annual journey. That makes these reindeer at least 196-years old. That’s getting a little-bit long in the antler. It’s unclear whether Nicholas has ever replaced his vehicle in these years. At the...

Last winter here in Wonder Lake, the temperature fell to close to 30-below zero. That’s cold. That’s really, really cold. That’s the kind of cold where you don’t want to go outside longer than you have to. But, unless you have a heated garage, it’s also the kind of cold your car, truck or SUV is stuck in. It can make it difficult to start your vehicle. The cold has a peculiar effect on liquids. With water, the cold will make it solidify into ice at 32 degrees. Fortunately, your car, truck or SUV fluids are adjusted to withstand temperatures that fall below 32 degrees. If it’s ‘healthy,’ the coolant/antifreeze in your vehicle should be able to withstand temperatures down to 35-degrees below zero. You may have noticed that’s only 5-degress beyond the temperatures that were experience in Wonder Lake last winter. And, when you consider the wind-chill factor, it’s possible there was a car, truck or SUV that experienced colder temperatures than that. With a mix of either methanol, etha...

Truck drivers, the drivers of those 18-wheel monstrosities we see on the roads around McHenry, are required by law to conduct a Pre-Trip Inspection each day before they drive. It makes a lot of sense considering how much damage a 40-ton tractor-trailer can do if something goes wrong. Performing an inspection before you drive makes sense for those of us operating 4-wheel, 1-1/2-ton little monsters, too. If something breaks while a 40-ton truck is hurtling down the road, get out of the way. But, if something goes wrong while you’re steering your car down a McHenry road, the potential for injury and worse is very real. How do you avoid having something break while driving? It’s impossible to absolutely avoid this potentiality. Things break. That’s all there is to it. But you can dramatically reduce the possibility of something going wrong while you drive down the road by staying on top of your vehicle’s condition. Of course, a pre-trip inspection of your car can also help you to avo...